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A main tenet of modernism is that human
reason, armed with the scientific method, is the only reliable means of
attaining knowledge about the universe. (1)
Modernists believe that reason, not the bible, is
the final authority:
Modernism may fittingly be said to have
begun with the deists, a group of "free-thinkers" who were active during the
early part of the 18th century in England, where they founded the Masonic
Lodge. They taught that all religions are equally true since all of them,
including Christianity, are merely republications of the original religion
of nature. Reason, the deists insisted, and not the Bible is the supreme
authority, since it is to human reason that the original religion of nature
is most clearly revealed. (2)
Modernism favors humanism over dogma.
Modernism,
in religion, was a general movement in the late 19th and 20th century that
tried to reconcile historical Christianity with the findings of modern
science and philosophy. Modernism arose mainly from the
application of modern critical methods to the study of the Bible and the
history of dogma and resulted in less emphasis on historic dogma and creeds
and in greater stress on the humanistic aspects of religion. (3)
Modernism originated in the late 1700s in Europe
and by the late 1800's it was a formidable force in the church:
Theological modernism
(or liberalism) had its origin in Europe, particularly in Germany, in the 19th
century and was merely the rationalistic thinking of that time applied to
Christianity. It was the dawn of the “scientific era”; many men felt they were
on the verge of discovering the secrets of the universe and solving the problems
of mankind. Anti-Christian thinkers such as Darwin, Hegel, and Marx led the
movement to dethrone God and replace Him with Man. Unregenerate “Christian”
professors in many European universities and seminaries had already rejected
the Word of God, so they gladly accepted the humanistic thinking of the
day and set out to apply evolutionary thinking to the Bible and Christianity.
The result was tragic: The Bible was considered merely a human book, inspired
only in the sense that Shakespeare's writings were “inspired.” Jesus Christ was considered a
mere man, good and helpful, perhaps, but a mere man nonetheless. [bold emphasis
added] (4)
Thomas Newberry used the King
James Bible as a platform to promote his modernist ideas about hell, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and more. Newberry's modernized rendering of the Textus
Receptus (republished in the George
Ricker Berry Greek to English Interlinear) is being used
by some to discredit the
King James Bible.
notes:
(1) http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/breakdwn.html
(2) A Short History of Modernism http://www.biblebelievers.com/Hills_KJVD_Chapter3.htm
(3) Modernism
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0833541.html
(4) New Evangelicalism--Its History by David Cloud http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/fundamen1.htm |